EPA and B.P. Products North America Resolve Underground Storage Tank Violations at Four Former D.C. Gas Stations

B.P. Products North America Inc. and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have resolved underground storage tank violations at four of the company’s former gas stations in Washington, D.C.

B.P. will pay a $6,350 fine for failing to perform corrosion protection inspections every 60 days at three of its four facilities, and for failing to provide release detection oversight for two small waste oil underground storage tanks at two of the facilities.

The inspection violations occurred from November 2003 through March 2005. While the company often did the inspections, they weren’t always done within 60 days of the prior inspection as required by law. B.P. discovered the inspection irregularities, changed its underground storage tank inspector contractor, and came back into compliance before the facilities were inspected by EPA in May 2005.

The release detection violations for one of the two waste oil tanks were confined to several months in 2005 although the release detection violations for the other facility occurred over several years from 2002 to 2005.

BP sold these four facilities in December 2005. The company has neither admitted nor denied EPA’s factual allegations.